Never one to put too much stock in Power Rankings, I skimmed over the CBS Sports version rather quickly just to see where the Washington Nationals fell in line. After a week where the Nationals were 3-4, coming off a week where they were 1-5, my eyes went to the bottom of the list first.
To my surprise, the Nationals are not one of the six worst teams in the league, in fact they shot up two places since the last Power Rankings was released.
The Nationals spot in the Power Rankings has to do more with the ineptitude of others rather than their own play.
Having played on the road the entire week, and against division foes, one would think a 3-4 record would suffice. However, if the Nationals could score any runs they could have walked away with three wins in Atlanta alone, as well as taking the series from the Phillies. The Sunday matinee was just awful. From the moment Austin Voth was hit in the face with a Vince Velasquez pitch, to the collapsed backstop debacle, just awful.
This is officially the worst half-inning in baseball history. Phillies have scored 5 runs on 2 singles (one that didn't leave the infield), 3 walks, an error, a fielder's choice and a strikeout-wild pitch.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) June 6, 2021
Were Voth not to have taken a heater to the schnoz (no disrespect, I know he suffered a broken nose because of it) and Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber, or Starlin Castro made hard contact with the ball while the bases were loaded in the third inning, the Nationals could have walked out of Philadelphia on a high note.
No use looking in the past though.
Back to the Power Rankings. As bad as life is for the Nationals right now, I would say we are pretty fortunate as a fan base. While the Nationals endured a 3-4 week, 4-9 swoon over the past two weeks, their luck could have been worse.
A look at the bottom three teams in the rankings: Arizona, has lost 17 straight road games. Baltimore, lost 18 of last 19 games in May. Texas, has lost 15 straight road games. After Colorado and Minnesota make appearances, Miami hits the charts, losers of eight of the past nine games.
The Washington Nationals are not playing good baseball right now. Thankfully, there are several other teams playing worse. Just as the Power Rankings says, Juan Soto is getting hot. Time to flip the script and start climbing northward on this chart.